About "Me" Cheryl

Food has mapped my life.Food has been my portal to self-understanding, self-love & healing.Food has taught me to listen, speak, and write from the heart. Food was the vehicle that unleashed my emergent voice.

Everyone has a food story

Food looks good, smells good, tastes good. And is part of almost every relationship, ritual, celebration, meeting, romance, gathering, illness ending and ceremony. Food is the portal to remembering pleasurable events and healing painful ones. And although we don’t share the same joys or challenges, your story is my story and my story is yours. We often get lost in pain or hurt of the past—yet, the gift in giving voice to our stories is to put ourselves back together whole.

Food is memory

At the age of six, Mom would make lamb chops and sweet potatoes for lunch at my request. Lunchtime was the only time Mom seemed relaxed, the only time she seemed to listen and be at peace. The smoky rosemary, salt and garlic taste combined with the syrupy pumpkin aroma created within me an indelible association between food and health, cooking and well being.

Food is prophet

Food is forecaster, friend, enemy, seer, part of our soul’s curriculum, miracle worker and healer. Currently food is the conduit launching two passion projects: a book about eating to your own beat, and, Kiss the Cook: a docu-series about why some couples grow apart and the key ingredients and flavors that draw couples closer together.

Food became my drug of choice to avoid feelings

To deal with family dissonance, broken romances, and illness—I turned food into my enemy. I ate when I was full, unaware of my bodies true cravings. I pretended food was a best friend who could obliterate difficult feelings. Then, in my late twenties I contracted Guillain-Barre’ Syndrome (GBS), a neurological illness that left me paraplegic for four years and 51 pounds overweight.

Food turned into nourishment, healer and pleasure again

GBS almost cost me my life… I spent four years in the hospital, quadriplegic. Doctors peered over me, taking notes and discussing my prognosis as if I were invisible and hopeless. I had to shift my reality.

I took back the responsibility for my own health and weight

I fired all of my doctors and found the neurologist who believed I could live. I read and researched Eastern and Western nutrition–and sprinkled in my food story. To ultimately recover from GBS, I established the best internal and external environment to come into balance, and had faith my body could heal itself!

Without GBS–and my enduring association between food and wellbeing, I doubt I would have become the first ABC -TV Eyewitness News Nutritional Reporter; KABC - TALK RADIO HOST; author; producer; Global Nutritionist—educated in both Eastern and Western nutrition; mother or the woman I am today.

My professional affiliations include: The Center for Science in the Public Interest; American Film, Television, and Radio Association; The Screen Actors Guild; the Culinary Guild of Southern California; the National Speakers Association; Member of The Ojai Foundation, and The Ayurvedic Institute.

Food took me on a journey into myself

Food taught me that no matter how many times I've tried to accomplish something, no matter how long I've struggled with my health or weight—before I could succeed—I needed to honor what my body wanted and needed. By creating personal promises and following through—self love was set into motion.

A dysfunctional family or how I respond to my circumstances does not define me. What anyone else did, said, didn’t say, or didn’t do does not characterize who I am. Only I can decide what makes me lovable, unlovable, good enough or not good enough.

"I couldn’t get up from my sleeping bag. I ate pancakes, covered with pure maple syrup, drank several cups of coffee and took extra vitamins. Nothing helped. I was panicked and perplexed as I got on a plane back to Los Angeles, where I was taken by taxi straight to the hospital. Life as I knew it was about to change…"

~ Cheryl Sindell

Beyond Chance - A Will To Live

Take a look: Lifetime television taped a segment about my battle with Guillain-Barré Syndrome. In addition to finding, Louis Rosner, MD—the doctor who believed I’d be able to walk again—I journeyed into myself, authored my own diet and lifestyle, and brought my constitution back into balance. I enabled my body to ultimately heal itself!